Jazz /
Especially For You
“Repeated listening discovers more and more nuances in the subtle interplay and the clever and endless sonic games of these pioneers of European improvised music.” - Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
Here And How
"Three musicians who seem like impressionist painters, building, stroke by stroke, on small scale, finally creating a strong statement for the fresh catalogue of the label." - Fotis Nikolakopoulos, Freejazzblog
Muted Language
“Brilliant drumming by two fearless artisans; hearing, resounding the real world around us. Truth is in our ears.” - Chris Searle, The Morningstar
The Undanced Dance
"Fractured grooves blend into dark, cinematic ambient drones and morph into spontaneous improvisations, colored by epic electronica and ornamented with raw noises." - Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
The Way We Speak
"It is one of the finest documents of how improvisation is made that this listener has heard, on par with the two astounding The Life of a Trio albums (by Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre and Steve Swallow)" - George Grella, New York City Jazz Records
In Air
“Excellent testimony to the quirky and detailed improvisation of the British where the emphasis is on dynamics, the sporadic use of silence and restricted playing with a multiplicity of playful options (…)” – Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg
Big Moon
*2023 stock* Over 60 releases and 44 years into his career as a jazz drummer and composer, William Hooker has made (arguably) his best album yet during the pandemic in 2020, a follow up to his critically acclaimed 2019 album “Symphonie of Flowers". Clocking in at 83 minutes in total (depending on the format you’re listening to), “Big Moon” is as expansive as it is groundbreaking. With a reputation as one of the most innovative composers and drummers of his generation, for those in the know, Hook…
Symphonie Of Flowers
*2023 stock* William Hooker has been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation, leading a variety of ensembles within the worlds of free jazz, experimental, and new music. Hooker's prior collaborators range from avant garde jazz musicians to indie rock legends like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. On his latest work, “Symphonie of Flowers”, Hooker weaves three sections into a whole, or a “symphonie” of sorts. As he says, “the piece begins and…
Shamballa
Shamballa is the 1993 collaboration from jazz drummer William Hooker, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), and composer Elliott Sharp. The release features Hooker performing duets with each musician. Hooker and Moore’s performance is littered with bursts of feedback and distortion, while the collaboration with Sharp is characterized by a more electronic sound, building a sense of technology. The pieces were released on vinyl for the first time as a double LP for Record Store Day 2023, limited to 1,500 …
Le Sud
Tip! Le Sud trio works from the concept of lower-case free music, which has been a common European currency since the mid-1970s. Despite Brexit, violist Benedict Taylor asserts himself during this continental concert by sawing, sweeping and stretching distinctive patterns from his strings. During the two over half-hour each improvisations however there’s no lead instrument. Positioned power strokes, steel string plinks and diverted chords from Dirk Serries plus Friso Van Wyck hollow pops, metal …
Mnhrs
This is the memorable 10th live document of the free improvised music sessions co-organized by doubtmusic and Fulldesingn Records at Knuttel House in Iriya, recorded on multi-tracks on 5 May 2023. “mn” of Mikawa and Numata and “HRS” of Nishimura and Fujikake got united miraculously for this very special occasion, so the title was settled as “MNHRS”.Highly recommended to listen as loud as possible. If that is not easily achieved, then with headphones, but high in volume. We are pretty confident t…
Double Diamond
The first release on Sormi Editions is an improvised acoustic album by Turku-based guitarist Topias Tiheäsalo. Full of delicate sounds, low-volume playing and beautiful overtones the CD features cover paintings and design by Pauliina Mäkelä.
Eric Dolphy
**English edition. 272 pp., Large format. Hardcover** Some think Eric Dolphy was an otherworldly apparition. His stellar career lasted little more than 5 years. He was one of the most important pioneers of the jazz avant-garde of the 1960s. As a multi-instrumentalist, Dolphy played flute, bass clarinet, alto saxophone and clarinet. He also composed and arranged. His brilliant solos in performances with the Mingus Band, among others, are milestones in jazz and music history. Guillaume Belhomme t…
Watching with My Ears: 20 Years Vision Festival New York
**English/German edition. Hardcover** With Watching with my Ears, the Wuppertal artist Jorgo Schäfer presents the works he has made over 20 years during the Vision Festival in New York. The Vision Festival is an annual world festival of free jazz (free improvised music, avant-garde jazz, etc.), where other arts such as dance, poetry, spoken word and visual arts also play an important role. „When the Wuppertal bassist Peter Kowald invited me to the Vision Festival in New York in the summer of 2…
Mongrels
Mongrels—Buck Nauseef—two creatures with no pedigree or particular style who have absorbed, mixed and amalgamated numerous pedigrees and styles during long careers working closely with leading musicians of diverse genres including: orchestral, Javanese gamelan, jazz, Ghanaian music and dance, r&b, Hindustani classical music, free improvisation, Balinese gamelan, Turkish classical Sufi music…
Recordings and performances have been with, amongst many others, The Necks, Evan Parker, Jack Bruce, Bill…
Dripping
Tip! When Dirk Serries travelled last May to Portugal for a series of concerts with José Lencastre, he didn't know he was going to be invited to record some amazing sessions with several key players from the Portuguese impro scene. This is one. Lively session recorded at the studio of João Madeira in Lisbon on May 7th, 2023. A blast it was.
Hawking Extended
"With Hawking Extended the two Berlin based musicians Ernst Bier & Ignaz Schick present their duo Hawking (formed in 2013) in addition with the Munich based composer, guitarist and live-electronics player Gunnar Geisse. While Hawking performed entirely with live-electronic instruments – in Hawking Extended however additionally to the three different electronic set-ups the musicians also make use of their original acoustic instruments. The purely acoustic setting (saxophone, guitar, drums) is mir…
Ilog2
*2023 stock* Ignaz Schick and Oliver Steidle started collaborating as Ilog around 2013/2014 with celebrated concerts in the Berlin experimental underground. Their first album on Boomslang Records was released in 2015 and since then the two have been performing on and off concerts & tours in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and the USA.
In the meantime they also collaborated with the Norwegian bass maverick Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and German sound artist Jan-Peter Son…
Smash And Grab
When Ballister hit the stage at the Catalytic Sound Festival in Chicago in December 2022, no one in the band was quite sure what to expect. Although they’d done a two-week tour of the US in April of that year, their first reunion following an almost three-year break due to the pandemic, you never know what might happen after several months apart. Sometimes that first gig is magic. And sometimes it swims around searching for a center. That’s just a danger of the art form.
But drummer Paal Nilssen…
Lepok
*300 copies limited edition* The very unique Basque scene of sound experimentation has had two main hubs for more than twenty years: the highly regarded and sorely missed Larraskito in Bilbao, and the iconic and resilient Matadeixe / Matadero in Azkoitia (Gipuzkoa). Mikel (Conteiner, Killerkume, Loan, Orbain Unit) from Bilbao and Joseba (Autoa, Fernalia, Paezur) from Azpeitia are two fundamental pillars in this great story, thanks to their multiple musical projects, their skills as listeners and…